Learning to see: Guiding students' attention via a Model's eye movements fosters learning

This study investigated how to teach perceptual tasks, that is, classifying fish locomotion, through eye movement modeling examples (EMME). EMME consisted of a replay of eye movements of a didactically behaving domain expert (model), which had been recorded while he executed the task, superimposed onto the video stimulus. Seventy-five students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: In two experimental conditions (EMME) the model's eye movements were superimposed onto the video either as a dot or as a spotlight, whereas the control group studied only the videos without the model's eye movements. In all conditions, students listened to the expert's verbal explanations. Results showed that both types of EMME guided students' attention during example study. Subsequent to learning, students performed a classification task for novel test stimuli without any support. EMME improved visual search and enhanced interpretation of relevant information for those novel stimuli compared to the control group; these effects were further moderated by the specific display. Thus, EMME during training can foster learning and improve performance on novel perceptual stimuli.